Asus Xonar Phoebus Solo Review – 7.1 Gaming Soundcard

We’ve harped on it many times in our motherboard reviews. If your speakers or headphones are any better than ‘decent’ you are really doing yourself a disservice using the typical integrated audio setup. Most motherboard manufacturers have improved things with features like software bundles that enhance audio, improved onboard components, opamps, headphone amps, etc. But the vast majority of even relatively high end hardware is just not that great. No offense to THE CRAB~!, but Realtek audio serves as a commodity audio component, without offering too much to PC gamers.

Therefore it’s up to companies like Asus and and Creative Labs to come up with audio products that serve our needs directly. That’s why today, we’re looking at the Asus Xonar Phoebus Solo, a 7.1 channel gaming soundcard.

Before moving on, we should define what might suit the needs of a gaming soundcard,

Quality headphone output is a must

Overall audio output and input should be top of the line for the price

Should have positional audio software with a lot of room for customization

Durable components that can withstand a lot of use, and heat

Stable, fast drivers with a good UI

Should have on-the-fly digital DTS or Dolby for surround sound gaming with digital output

It should not affect PC performance significantly

Sound delivery needs to be low latency

That last point is especially important for living room PCs, something we’re going to see a lot more of moving forward. As we look at the Xonar Phoebus Solo, we’ll find out how many of these needs it meets.

The Xonar Phoebus Solo has 8 ports in total. Going from left to right:

Mic in (this lights up red)

Headphone Out (this lights up green)

Control box link

Front Out

Line In

Rear Out

Center/Subwoofer Out

Side Out/SPDIF Out

To accommodate for size, some cuts had to be made. The SPDIF out is shared with the side analog channels. You most likely won’t be needing digital out if you have a full 7.1 channel analog setup, of course. Also while the SPDIF is a 2.5mm type, a TOSLINK adapter is included.

Aside from that, the light up ports are quite handy! However if you are looking for any of the other ports, you are going to be doing a lot of counting with the manual next to you, or have a flashlight with you behind the PC. The odd arrangement of analog output / input / output threw me off a few times.

If you are wondering what that whacky shield if for, it actually serves a purpose. It acts as an EMI shield to protect the audio components that are sensitive to interference. This might come in handy for a product that is likely to spend its life sitting next to a video card or two, with high speed fans creating a lot of noise.

You might think that it is just there for looks, but in my opinion the card looks even better with it off:

You will also notice that there is some shielding in place in the middle of the card; this shields the headphone output from the other analog outputs. As you can guess, Asus spared no expense when assembling the Xonar Phoebus Solo, especially with all the Nichion Finegold capacitors. We’ll go through all the other components on the next page.

And yes, that is a PCI-E 6-pin adapter on the top corner there, just like a video card. The Xonar Phoebus Solo requires the extra 12v power. And as you’ll see later in the review, it does make use of that power.

Before inspecting the card further, here’s a quick look at the specs.

Asus Xonar Phoebus Solo Specs

Interface

PCI-E x1

Audio Controller

C-Media CM8888HT

Analog to digital converter

Cirrus Logic CS5381

Digital to analog converter

Cirrus Logic CS4362

Headphone amp

TI TA6120A2

Maximum recording / playback quality

24 bit/192 KHz

Output signal-to-noise ratio

118 dB (Front)
110 dB (Headphone)

Input signal-to-noise ratio

118 dB

Output channels

8

Multi-channel digital encoding

Dolby Digital Live

Sound Imaging / Speaker virtualization Software

Xear Surround Headphone
DTS Ultra PC II
Dolby Home Theater v4

Price (October 2, 2013)

$129.00

That’s right, we’re not into ‘tricking’ our readers to get a ‘free’ pageview by posting the specs on an otherwise empty page ;). For full details, you can check Asus’ official product page for the Phoebus Solo.

Hey, is there an option to plug Headphones and stereo jack that feeds home stereo simultaneously? I mean if I turn on stereo I can hear the sound, if I put headphones on I hear the sound.Until now I’ve been using micro-jack splitter, but this may cause quality issues here…

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